Recap: Los Angeles 102, Cleveland 80. (Or, The City of Angles).

I’m wary of “killer stats,” the kind where a broadcaster will glance at a stat sheet from an assistant, look at the score, do two seconds of math and say something like: “Well the Cavaliers have 13 less second chance points than the Kings and that’s the difference in the game, otherwise it’d be a dead heat.” These quick equivalencies fail to take into account the many coeval facets that go into winning and losing a basketball game. That all being said, the Clippers assist/turnover ratio was 6.4, compared with the Cavs’ 1.1. The Cavs couldn’t hold onto the ball, and their offense was sludgy tonight, while the Clippers were efficient and generous, which the A/T ratio disparity captures succinctly. A 3-0 west coast trip against playoff teams was probably a bridge too far anyway.

The Cavs found themselves in an early 11-0 hole, similar to how the Golden State game started. Mike Brown quickly went to his bench, countering the Clippers extreme athleticism up front with the best foil he had in Anderson Varejao. Andy was the only Cav to finish with double digit rebounds, and Cleveland struggled to contain DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin all night. Los Angeles ended the quarter with 12 assists on 13 made field goals and no turnovers, efficiency the Cavs couldn’t match. Turnovers against LA are particularly costly because of their proclivity to dunk everything.

Halfway through the second quarter, Kyrie Irving left the game with a biceps injury he sustained from tangling with Griffin. Irving wasn’t the only one to clash with Griffin, as he and Dellavedova got into a shoving match within the flow of a possession, and Spencer Hawes picked up his second technical reacting to Griffin. He seemed unencumbered by any Cavalier efforts on either side of the ball, and dunked and shot whatever he wanted, ending two assists shy of a triple double. Also to his credit was the anonymity of Tristan Thompson, who only scored one bucket and ended -31 in 20 minutes.

The past few second halves, the Cavs have tightened up their defense and pressured opponents with double teams. On Friday, the Warriors’ offensive output diminished every quarter, but tonight they weren’t as successful. Luol Deng played solid defense and didn’t commit a foul all night. Deng’s particular skillset works for this Cavs team, as he spaces the floor out and shoots jumpers, which are inefficient but contextually appropriate shots. Hawes’ addition helps Deng get open more, especially when he receives the ball in the middle of the key and looks for corner shooters.

The closest the Cavs got to the Clippers was seven. Jarrett Jack spearheaded a 12-0 run with a big three and a pair of floaters to cut the lead to seven with 9:22 left in the fourth quarter. Doc Rivers quickly responded and put his starters back in, who regained control and saw the rest of the game out. LA took 3:30 to score in the fourth, missing their first eight shots, but the starters were very efficient and easily overwhelmed a Cavaliers defense that looked tired. Matt Barnes and Chris Paul hit back-to-back threes with five minutes left and that more or less sealed it. Paul never tried to score much during the first three quarters, as is his custom, but he came alive late and found seams in the defense. He is very talented in predicting future movement of players based on little actions, and he moves quickly to little pockets of space that nobody would ever think to exploit. Mastery of angles and timing ensure he is always in a dangerous position.

His outburst at the end ensured the Cavs would lose, and their offense never found sustained resilience. They shot 34.9%, with only Deng and Jack ending with vaguely efficient lines. Dion Waiters ran the offense to mixed results after Irving left. Often, his aggressive drives opened lanes for the Cavs, but he also turned the ball over three times and missed 10 of 15 shots. The Cavs play next at home against the Heat on Tuesday.

I live in LA and chose not to go to tonights game. Just had a gut feeling the Cavs would get smashed. Glad I didn’t go through the trouble of getting to the game (seriously a pain in the ass here if you don’t live near the subway).

Boyer and Amico have tweeted that Irving’s season could be over. Time to dust off those bow ties guys. Not advocating tanking, but with their upcoming schedule they won’t have to. If Irving is really out for the year they’ll probably finish with the 6th or 7th worst record in the league. The difference this year is that the 2nd or 3rd pick is like winning the lottery.

The only good that can really come of Irving being out for the season in my eyes is that Dion will get more minutes and we’ll see how he can run the team as the alpha dog. In my mind that’s significant with Irving’s extension coming. If he wants out, this draft isn’t a bad time to grant his request and not have hard feelings over it.

Not related to the game, but kind of topical-I love the Clippers sleeved jerseys. The Cavs are probably getting them next year and I’m hoping for sleeved version of the 1970-74 uniforms. Classic look.

Tristan Thompson has been truly awful in the first quarter the last two games. It seems opposing defenses are using the effective “leave Tristan somewhat open” defense, to devastating effect. Mike Brown’s inability to quickly adjust helped dig the Cavs into a hole again, too. Apparently, teams aren’t going to let Hawes hit wide open threes at the beginnings of games any more. MB had to know this was coming.

I hope the team can rally to some effective play, but the Irving biceps injury is going to make it very difficult.

If I’m MB, I seriously consider token starting Gee to keep Irving coming off the bench with Delly. I also consider starting Andy. Thompson has a long summer of work ahead of him.

Watched the entire game. I do think we could have won with Kyrie. Lord, I hope he’s not out for the season. Can’t really blame Mike Brown on this game. THe only thing different he could have done was take Tristan out sooner in the first half but it wouldn’t have made a difference when everyone else is bricking up shots. It’s becoming more and more obvious Tristan can’t compete against the elites of David Lee, BOgut, Griffin, Jordan and so so many more. He would rather 3 guys pound on him than make a quick pass. He can’t even make an easy bucket just a little pass 5 ft away from the net. It’s not inconsistent play but he’s met his ceiling. Zeller is showing more progress than TRistan. Moving on, Deng had a good game. But let’s not forget how GOOD the CLips are under Doc RIvers! They are currently 4th best in entire NBA and knocking on 2nd place in the Western COnference. They learned defense now and WOW Blake Griffin is making alot of shots clearly away from the rim!! THey have so many more really good players than Cavs and just look at their size. Their caliber is up there with the Spurs.

The Clippers TV crew mentioned that TT was ill with something (stomach flu?) and that earlier in the day it looked like he wasn’t going to play at all. Even on a good day, the super-athletic combo of Griffin and Jordan is going to be a bad matchup for Tristan.

The turnovers were just crazy. It seemed like most of them were mis-anticipation passes that went into the stands instead of finding an open man. Well, at least they were trying to pass the ball.

Taste is an interesting thing. I absolutely detest the sleeved jerseys. Hate. Atrocious. They make men built like Greek Gods look dumpy and men built like Greek Islands (Big Baby) look, er…nevermind. He always looks like that.

I like how Mike Brown went to our Defense/Hustle lineup. Delly, Gee, Deng, Tyler, and Andy. Delly could have come up huge had he hit a few shots. That lineup really got us back in the game and was the real impetus behind the 12-0 surge that came as Jack reentered. We don’t have enough offense with that group, but perhaps Miles instead of Gee, could provide the boost. Miles is a slightly better defender than Gee anyway, regardless of reputation.

Hawes is skilled, but he reminds me of a Center version of Ramon Sessions. You look at him, he seems pretty good, does some great things, even the advanced stats don’t hate him, and yet it doesn’t feel like he really is a winning player. He is too hesitant to shoot at times. He is a skilled passer and sees good angles, but is quite turnover prone. The backdoor passes look good, but then he casually tosses the ball away, or walks to a loose ball. He spends far too much time whining to the officials and he deserves a lot of the flack he gets from them. It could be an example of a guy who has been on a bad team too long, but that Sixer team did spend some time in the playoffs. I don’t hate him or anything, but he needs to clean up some decision making.

Tristan isn’t a starting player on a good team. I’ve said it a few times before, but he has been incredibly difficult to watch lately. The moment Andy checks in, our D improves 2 fold and our offense starts moving. Let the kid go against backups. I can’t continue watching a 3 second gather before he gets his shot blocked. He is clearly our 4th big at the moment. Tyler has been playing well all year in limited minutes. He has a new grasp of his defensive rotations and a mean(er) streak that is great to see. Let’em play!

If Kyrie is out, we lose the chance to properly evaluate our players as we go forward. If he is down, our best case scenario is to get to the playoffs somehow and show the media and Kyrie that he is not without “help” blah blah. And if we can’t come up with enough victories, it wasn’t expected anyway, even with him. I want to continue to watch players who are trying.

@ Ben
I agree bout TT. I have been saying it fir a while now. He is s backup at best on a contending team. A couple weeks ago on this site someone said we should lock him up for 4 years for 24 million. I think thats crazy. I am beginning to hate his game. His D is terrible on 4’s that can stretch the floor. And his jumpers pathetic. I personally would be ok with a trade for a toaster, or straight up releasing him. I agree he hit his ceiling and it looks like it isnt that high.
Also if KI is out it is a good thing. Lets face it, we shouldn’t be a playoff team, so now we can hopefully play AB more. Y not, the seasons done 15 games give him 30 mins a game. Deng and TT minutes can b reduced. Deng only because of nagging injuries, no need to play 30+ mins per game on a team going nowhere. I said it 2 weeks ago and I will say it again, either we need a coach that can do a better job maximizing our talent, or blow up the roster. I dont kno which one

I don’t know how anyone thought it was surprising that one of the best defensive coaches in the league with better talent would be able to stop our patented Mike Brown pick and pop and if that doesn’t work pick and pop again offense.

Delly post up on Big Baby had to be one of the best makes of Delly’s career.

Any news on whether Delly is OK? He got his ankle caught up between Paul and Griffin and led to that little argument. You could see Jack saying come on man to Blake to get him to back off. I watched this whole game and I’m not going to put anything on any one player. It’s Mike Brown’s fault if he can’t find more creative ways to get Spencer open. He’s a great big who can hit an open shot, but he can’t create his own shot other than vanilla drives to the hoop, which don’t work if he’s not able to make a few 3 pointers. When we all found out TT and Kyrie had food poisoning the night before I was expecting nothing from TT but Kyrie usually goes off in games where he’s sick or something so I was disappointed he went down. I’m usually really hard on him but you could see we really could have used someone who can actually make a layup every now and again.

TT is a young kid on a team that at best is inconsistent , we expect a lot from him, and that is not fair. Bulls average age is similar to Cavs , now take away Kyrie + Deng and see if we’re anywhere close to Bulls stat. Lots of people jump into conclusion as soon as a loss and that is detrimental to a young team psyche. Let the management be worry about the roster.. If Kyrie is out , we won’t lose much this year after all Cavs are not going anywhere this year. I like to see Sergey gets some decent minutes + Zeller. That is just my opinion. Go Cavs.

Tony has some good points. But I have to strongly disagree that Bulls age and Cavs are similar. LoL Bulls have 4 players in their 30’s. Bulls average age is 26.6. Cavs only has 1 player that I 30. Average age for Cavs is 23.8 to 24 depending on the 10 day contract guys age. You check for yourself at http://stats.nba.com/teamProfile.html?TeamID=1610612741

I am “guessing ” that kyrie’s season is done along with our ” very slim ” playoff hopes—–it is time to ” hand the ball ” to dion and see what he can do —hopefully t.t. hasn’t “hit the ceiling ” -still believe with the proper trainer/ coach and hard work in off season we will see continued improvement—jack ” went back into time ” for about 4 possessions but then didn’t know ” how to turn it off “—-brown was clearly out coached last night–making adjustments is a BIG PART of coaching before and during a game–you see which coach made the adjustments and which coach didn’t—-do we now turn our focus away from playoff picture to draft spots/ players–not trying to be negative—just realistic— GO CAVS

I feel like…The season is lost:((
I’m quitting on the NBA this season unless somehow a team beats Miami…the NBA is becoming very depressing to watch…
Sigh… Life of a Cavs fan… can’t get any worse right?
I always thought Griffin was an asshole, now I just hate him.

To all who say game after game that it is because the youth/inexperience on our team. I am not arguing with u but if that’s the case how many more seasons of the same will we have to suffer thru till they mature and turn into a contender. Will it take till TT is 27 or so before he is worth of a starting spot. I am not willing to wait and hope. I can name some guys at almost any position that were beasts in the 3rd year in the NBA. A 4th overall pick shouldn’t be a 5 year developmental player. I agree that I am lookin forward to dion run the team. I would like to see the line up with him and AB and karasev should get more minutes. We kno what to expect from deng, hawes, andy, gee, and miles. Lets see if any of these recent high picks are worth a darn, either on this team or in trade. And as much as I hate say it. If delly cant shoot decent he needs a deminished role, or let go. Andy and he are of the same mold. Hustle, energy guy . those guys cant comprise a whole team. Even bruce bowen and hustle hard nosed defender was a very reliable corner shooter.

Remember Chris Grant had made plans for when this day of Kyrie is “Out” would arrive. Jarrett Jack was chosen specifically for this scenario. He did wonderfully for when Steph Curry was out with extended injuries last year. Let’s see if he can take over in the same manner without Kyrie on the floor. I’m rooting CHris Grant was the genius in this vs the goat.

it looked like Kyrie dislocated his shoulder the way he was holding in and wincing in pain. no way was it a “bicep” injury, as they reported. just when things couldn’t get any worse for the boys in wine and gold……

…I stand corrected as ESPN is reporting it as a “bicep” injury. it just looked to me, he was holding his shoulder and his arm was straight down indicating a shoulder injury. either way, get well soon, Kyrie….

@Dale, Delly is the same mold as Patrick Beverly, a pit bull you stick on opposing guards. Beverly was barely in the NBA and now he’s starting for one of the top teams in the league. There is always room for hustle and defense regardless of position. I have no doubts that Delly can improve his shot, his motion is consistent he just needs to refine it. A year under a strength and shooting coach will do him wonders. I will be very upset if they don’t bring Delly back because if there is one thing this team needs it’s toughness and fearlessness. He’s not taking shots he shouldn’t be taking which is a good thing.

Love TT as a person but unless he goes off in October next year, Cleveland shouldn’t extend him. Restricted free agency or a trade. And the starting power forward spot next year should be wide open UN training camp
WFNY indeed.

Jhill
I agree he is taking the shot he should b. He just isn’t knocking them down. I do feel if he works on it in the summer he should improve. I am not advocaing getting rid of him, unless his shot does not improve. But I dont kno if our current coach and staff is very good at develping anyone. In MB’s first stint here the only player who improved year over year with him was lebron. But I dont think that much to do with MB

TV 63, Jack is 31 , Varejao is 32 . I just wanted to make a point that age is not a total excuse . Bulls lost Rose and Deng and other people steped up and no excuse . There is no reason that we as fan can’t enjoy the game if they perform and win some game instead of struggling most of times. I agree with with you on Jack and I never complained about his game, Jack is a pro and he knowers his role and why he is with this team. That is just my opinion my friend. Go Cavs.

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Nate Smith is an Associate Editor. He grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, and moved to NE Ohio in 2000. He adopted the Cavs in 2003 and graduated from Kent State in 2009 with a BA in English. He can be contacted at oldseaminer@gmail.com or @oldseaminer on Twitter.

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